Diameter: 19.75" Bell 1 of 9
Founded by Unidentified (blank)
Dove Bell ID: 60192 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Sparkhill: St John the Evangelist
Diocese of Birmingham
Church, 602112
http://www.StJohnSparkhill.org.ukOverview
Grid reference: SP 92 840
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Cruciform, nave, transepts, apsidal chancel, flanking vestries, and tower.
Dimensions:
Nave estimated to be c 31m (100ft) x 10.5m (35ft).
Footprint of Church buildings: 866 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
Built 1888 by the firm of Martin and Chamberlain (J H Chamberlain died in 1883) and enlarged in 1895. The spire was added in 1905, the railings in 1906. A parish was assigned out of Yardley St Edburgha’s in 1894 after working-class housing had spread to Sparkhill from Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath.
Exterior Description
The church is designed in the Early English style, lancets with simple tracery, mostly 2-lights with cusped lights and foils in the heads; similar 3-light window of stepped lancets in the west wall and transepts. The dominant feature is the slender buttressed west tower, with a spiral staircase externally expressed at lower level and a pentice west porch abutting. Low buttressed nave with pair of relatively shallow, but high, transepts, and chancel with apsidal sanctuary. Small dormer windows punctuate the large external expanse of the nave roof. The external bays of the nave are cross-gabled, creating almost proto-aisles, indeed the external impression is of a mass of gables; without the spire to compensate this would make the building look low and crowded.
Building Fabric and Features
Cruciform Plan
Nave
19th century
Transept
19th century s
Chancel
19th century apsidal
Vestry
19th century
Tower (component)
19th century
Building Materials
Brick
19th century red
Terracotta
19th century dressings
Stone
19th century dressings
Cast Iron
19th century girders
Slate
19th century roofs
Interior
Interior Description
The interior is a major surprise. The nave has been white-washed, perhaps over remnants of the Victorian colour scheme; photographs in the CCC collection show stencilling over the chancel arch, for example. The chancel, nave, and transepts form a single undivided space, under pointed arches spanning the nave and crossing formed by intersecting pierced iron truss-arches encased in tongued-and-grooved boarding, colourfully painted. There are pierced stepped lancet panels above the intersections, and together with the intruding dormer lights this makes for an extremely complex roof structure, the main design feature of the church. The girders rise from short clustered columns with carved floriate capitals, providing a vast, undivided low church preaching space. The crossing space offers great liturgical and performance flexibility, with the shallow apsidal chancel and transepts opening off it.
The nave was partitioned in 1969 with a full width and height wall at the west end, decorated with a mural of Christ by a local artist. A central exit leads to the original west door. The eastern bay of the nave is taken up by pine bench pews with hinged book rests, there are two oak priests’ stalls sited in front of the chancel screen. Woodblock floor, with warm-air blown heating vents in the north transept, the plastering here showing signs of decay possibly exacerbated by this system. The south transept houses two organ cases and pipes.
Broad chancel arch with dogtooth detailing carried on clustered columns. Remnants of the Victorian decorative scheme survive in the chancel. There is a filigree oak chancel screen, Perpendicular, now hung with curtains, and a projector screen is mounted on the south side, these details indicative of the contemporary use of the church. The complex timber roof, still dark-stained, is carried on carved figurative corbels. The chancel floor has decorative tiles, sanctuary floor with a circular central mosaic of the Evangelist’s Eagle. Pine choir stalls, some shortened to accommodate the organ console.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
20th century Oak altar, panelled, with Last Supper carving in centre panel, 1921, Bromsgrove Guild.
Reredos
20th century Gothic Caen stone reredos, with four plain alabaster panels and a smaller lancet on each side. On the north wall of the transept, either side of the main war memorial, are two glazed frames, each containing three panels (oil, gesso and gilded) by A E Lemmon of Bromsgrove (1936), removed because condensation on the alabaster panels was causing damage. Photographs from 1943 in the CCC collections show these in situ.
Pulpit
20th century The pulpit is of pine, panelled on floriated stone pedestal, 1906.
Lectern
20th century Carved oak eagle lectern, 1922, with separate oak steps.
Font (component)
20th century Original font lost, perhaps in work of 1969. Present font from now redundant daughter church of Emmanuel, temporarily mounted on crude timber frame. Possibly late 20th-century, round bowl supported on six tall rectangular detached piers.
Stained Glass (window)
20th century Three good two-light windows in apse by B J Warren (1914-5); north, Transfiguration; central Crucifixion; south, Ascension. Westernmost south nave two-light window, Gethsemane scenes (1945). Artist unknown. Windows otherwise of ‘cathedral’ glass. West lancet windows and doors, now in area converted for community use, have good 20th-century decorative glass (Bromsgrove Guild again?)
Inscribed Object
20th century Various 20th-century brass plaques. White marble tablet in memory of George Timmins, widow donated bells and spire repair in his memory in 1905.
Organ (component)
20th century Either side of south transept window, two large organ-cases, coved facing north, with an arrangement of metal and wooden pipes. Lower case obviously constructed of redundant pews from now-partitioned west-end area. Contains three-manual instrument by Sheffields of Olton, assembled from a number of sources (1971). Stained plywood-clad console in north chancel.
Rail
20th century Good oak communion rails, nicely detailed and of a piece with the altar (1922).
Inscribed Object
20th century On the north wall of the transept is a large oak World War I memorial with canopy, from Emmanuel church. There are also two others, a small white marble arch-headed tablet with black lettering to the fallen of World War I and a large, also arch-headed brass plaque to the Birmingham Small Arms company commemorating the fallen in World War II.
Screen
20th century The chancel screen is also a war memorial, Bromsgrove Guild (1919).
Bells
C
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 2 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60193 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
B
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 3 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60194 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
A
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 4 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60195 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
G
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 5 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60196 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
F
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 6 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60197 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
E
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 7 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60198 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
D
Diameter: 3.75" Bell 8 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60199 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
C
Diameter: 4" Bell 9 of 9
Founded by Harrington, Latham & Co 1905
Dove Bell ID: 60200 Tower ID: 23589 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: SP 92 840
Burial and War Grave Information
The church/building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Sources
Showing 9 entries of 9 View All
Submit a change
If you notice something incorrect or missing, please explain it in the form below and submit it to our team for review.